Myst 2
Karin Wenz, Assistant Professor of English, University of Kassel
Spatial motifs which are used in Myst are media of orientation
and disorientation: for example a map in the library in connection with
a window or peephole functions as a guide to the island. Both are indicators
where to find the
entrances to the hidden worlds.
In Myst the window in connection with the map supports the user's orientation
and functionsas an interface between the multiple spaces within this storyworld.
These examples are means of orientation which are necessary in a world
whicha user has to explore on his or her own. Media of orientation tend
to appear as media of disorientation for a user who does not know how to
use them.This is for example obvious in an underground labyrinth which
can only be crossed when the user knows in advance which directions to
choose. The player's capacity for mental
reconstruction can help to transcend a mental image of geometric relationships
among the linked parts of the game. Such efforts to conceptualize the work
spatially can be quite successful, especially if the author helps out by
providing means of orientation. A reader can navigate the game not just
putting together a reading but also creating a mental model of the game's
architecture. The spatial motifs of Myst cite literary precursors. Their
spatial functionis an intertextual one: the
labyrinth alludes to the Greek labyrinth as well as to the technological
set of Science Fiction; added to this SF set we find an oversized gear
wheel, and a spaceship. The library and the books allude to the world of
Borges' or Eco's libraries as well as to the world of fiction and storytelling
in printed books in general. We find two wells which remind us of the function
of a well infairy-tales and last but not least the cottages in the trees
which allude Calvino's Barone rampante who lives in the trees.
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